This weekend is not only a busy weekend for sports fans, Comic Con Africa 2023 is taking place at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec.

Taking place from today 22nd September over the entire long weekend until 25th September, the festival of food, gaming, cosplay, esports and all things geek is set to be a cracker. Be sure to pack your sunscreen and a bottle of water to sip on.

While winding our way through the cavernous halls at the con we happened upon the F1 Experience Simulator. While there are many bucket sets with a steering wheel attached to a PC at these sorts of events, the F1 Experience Simulator is different thanks to a monocoque shell that you can climb into and race around Austria in.

The monocoque in question is from Vesaro and it’s shaped like the front end of one of the cars that race around the world every weekend. The shell can be covered in a cloth seathe which, for Comic Con, is covered in the event’s branding.

The owner of F1 Experience Simulator, Jannie, tells us that the company is based in Ballito and this is their first time at Comic Con Africa.

“For the serious racers, we have the Vesaro F50 simulator valued at £47 000. Last year we designed a trailer and built the simulator into the trailer. Now we can travel to events, corporate functions, fundraisers and team building. The system can also be hired for expos and parties,” the owner tells us.

The simulator uses pneumatics to simulate the bumps and kerbs you may cross while on track and you even get to use a wheel that wouldn’t look out of place at Suzuka this weekend.

Speaking of which, the only race track available for Comic Con is the Red Bull Ring in Austria and you will be racing a Red Bull F1 car.

For R200 you get 4 laps racing against 10 other racers. For those who just want to put a few laps in a GT Playseat and F1 Playseat are also available for R50 and R100 respectively for five minutes. F1 Experience Simulator is located in the Gaming Hall (Hall 5) at Comic Con Africa